Heavyweight fighter Evans Quinn on the run

He was a heavyweight contender born into a family of boxers from a tiny community on the Caribbean coast. Now he is a man on the run, wanted for murder.

Evans Quinn

It’s been an interesting few months watching this story unfold. Admittedly this post is a bit early because the situation has not been resolved, but my guess is that it won’t be anytime soon. Some of it is rumor and some of it is fact, but it is all fascinating. To get the RSG readers up to speed, here is what has happened so far…

Rumor: Raul Sambola was injured working on a cruise ship and won a lawsuit for $100k. That’s pretty big money for someone from the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, but he spent his money like water. The easy money lead to trafficking drugs small-time, and Raul had his boat, truck and reputation to keep up. One day his boat had run out of gas and he flagged down a passing panga. It was Evans Quinn, who lent him four gallons of fuel. Shortly thereafter, Evans came to collect, but Raul insisted he only received one gallon. After a brief argument, Evans ran off with the cover of Raul’s boat motor, bringing it to the police station stating he had taken it as part of a debt he was owed. Raul wasn’t happy.

Fact: Saturday night during some forgotten summer month of 2011, Raul found Evans’s brother, Jorge Quinn, sitting with friends at a local dancehall. Raul stood up, pulled out a gun and fired three shots into Jorge Quinn. Jorge survived, but not after losing part of his intestine and a testicle. Raul was quickly arrested.

Rumor: Raul didn’t spend much time in jail; he was let out after agreeing to pay a fine and Jorge’s medical bills which totalled about $7,000. Raul never paid.

Fact: I jumped in a taxi a few weeks ago and Jorge’s brother, Evans Quinn, got in right after me. He turned around and introduced himself, telling me he was a heavyweight boxer in the states.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” I asked him. Evans had been to my house a few years ago with some other friends and we hit it off. I had him laughing about something or another, and when the punchline dust settled, he offered me the job of being his manager. I told him he has got to be kidding…but he seemed very serious. I said thanks but no thanks and let it go, but reminded him of this in the taxi. He remembered and laughed as my face became recognizable, we shook hands and he promised to come back to the house one evening to say hi, then we parted ways.

Fact: Two days or so later, Evans saw Raul having lunch with his family in a local restaurant, pulled out a revolver and put five holes in him. Raul ran to the kitchen in an effort to escape, but didn’t get far. Evans booked it in a taxi to the wharf. From there, he jumped onto a jet ski and took off toward Pearl Lagoon. Raul but bled to death on the way to the hospital.

Big Rumor: Raul’s family isn’t going to let this slide. They postponed the funeral and brought in an obeah man from Jamaica. The obeah man cast a spell using fingers cut off from Raul’s body to bring Evans back to Bluefields so that they can kill him.

Fact: Three weeks later, Evans Quinn is still on the run. At one point, the police thought they had located him in Bluefields and planned a secret raid. In preparation for the secret raid, they ordered every bar in town to shut that night in case of a shootout…they didn’t want bullets flying. Of course, Evans wasn’t anywhere to be found. Perhaps the raid wasn’t so…secret?

This isn’t the first time Evans has had people wanting to kill him. And I am not talking about in the ring with his professional record of 20-6 with 18 knockouts, either. He has a reputation for not paying his debts, and on at least two occasions he has escaped attempts on his life in public by drug traffickers. Three years ago he attempted to sneak into the hospital to visit a convicted narco who was doing time for trafficking over a ton of coke. Evans was dressed as a preacher, carrying a bible, and was only caught when an eagle-eyed officer recognized him.